Usually, building your own devices is better than buying one off the shelf. When you make your own smart home gadgets, you know exactly how your data is being handled, you don't need to subscribe to a third-party system, and if something breaks, you know exactly how to replace it.

When people talk about improving their home office, they're typically referring to things like a better monitor, or an improved keyboard, a new chair, or maybe even some desk trinkets to make it feel more comfortable. I've done all those upgrades over the years, and every one of them was a big improvement in the way you'd expect.

Over the past few weeks, I've been doing a bit of cleaning around the house I grew up in. The amount of tech unearthed was astounding, with old PC builds, cell phones I'd never even look at now from decades ago, along with HDD and even some SSD storage.

At this point, pretending you don't use AI at work is the new pretending you don't check your phone in meetings. Everyone's doing it, and we've reached the stage where proficiency in AI tools has officially made its way into job descriptions. The debate has officially gone from whether you should use AI in the office for your tasks to which assistant you should be using to get them done.

New hyperscale data centers can't set up shop in New York for up to a year now that Governor Kathy Hochul (D) has signed the nation's first statewide moratorium. But a bill passed by the state legislature that could restrict even more developments still awaits her signature.The order blocks new environmental permits for data centers over 50 megawatts, which the governor's office says will give the state time to come up with the regulations needed to protect residents from rising energy prices and environmental impact. That's higher than the 20 megawatt threshold approved by state lawmakers. Hochul's office could not immediately identify th …Read the full story at The Verge.

When first building your smart home, it's easy to fall into the trap that you need as much data as possible. In response, you buy a range of sensors and radars, thinking that as long as your system has enough telemetry, it will finally achieve perfect automation. However, the issue is that by covering our living spaces in high-density sensor arrays, you create a maintenance nightmare of unpredictable cascading software bugs.

When it comes to in-car navigation, reliability is non-negotiable for me. For the last couple of years, I have relied on Android Auto for everything from navigation to music streaming and for taking calls over my car's infotainment system. But recently I decided to give CarPlay a try to add a little excitement to my otherwise usual driving routine. In fact, I tried it for a week to see if I would prefer it over Android Auto.

An increasing number of people seem to agree the internet is terrible for children - allegedly addictive, destructive to self-esteem, possibly a portal to predators. Over the past year, several countries have started requiring stringent age verification or outright bans for minors. At the end of June in the US, the House of Representatives passed the Kids Internet ​and Digital Safety (KIDS) Act, the latest in a string of attempted online child safety regulations. A couple of days later, a Pew Research Center survey found over half of US respondents favored a ban on social media for anyone under 16. There's a growing sense that the digital wo …Read the full story at The Verge.

Once you find a good controller, you really want to use it on every gaming device you own. Unfortunately, it's not as easy as plugging an Xbox controller into your Switch, so you're often hunting for workarounds.

Demis Hassabis, during a panel session at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. | Image: Bloomberg via Getty Images Demis Hassabis thinks the world needs an AI watchdog with the power to hit the brakes if frontier models become too dangerous. Writing in a blog post, the Google DeepMind CEO and cofounder said the US should lead the initiative, arguing that the country is the best place to set global standards "given its economic and technical standing." The organization, which could resemble existing regulators like the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, would be made up of leading independent experts and representatives from open-source communities and would have the authority to evaluate frontier models before they are released and coordinate an …Read the full story at The Verge.

Eärendil-1 is the first of many 60-foot space mirrors that Reflect Orbital is planning to launch into low Earth orbit. | Image: Reflect Orbital Reflect Orbital has been given the green light to launch its first space mirror that aims to redirect sunlight down to Earth at night. The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has authorized the California-based startup to build and operate a single prototype satellite in low-Earth orbit later this year, despite concerns over how the technology could impact optical astronomy.The satellite, named Eärendil-1 in reference to a Tolkien character, will attempt to redirect sunlight to specific areas on Earth after dark using a 59-foot (18-meter) reflective surface. If successful, Reflect Orbital plans to launch and operate a constellation …Read the full story at The Verge.

Bluetooth is one of those features you'd expect to work perfectly on Windows by now, considering how long it's been around. And to be fair, I have no trouble connecting my AirPods Max, PS5 controller, or any other Bluetooth peripheral. That part has never really been the problem. Whenever I leave my PC idle for a while or wake it up from sleep, that's when things start getting weird. More often than not, I've had to turn Bluetooth off and back on just to get the device to reconnect.